and can alert you instantly to an unusual charge. so you can be a member of a more secure world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. car companies make pianos. the same one that makes pianos makes motorcycles. i feel like everybody else knew this. i never knew this. i feel like -- if it was just motorcycle and piano company, but it's not. a whole bunch of companies have these kind of combined product lines. behold for example the hyundai piano. it is the same company that makes hyundai cars.

pea a pianos and cars. also daiwo cars may or may not be your style, but pianos, hey, everybody could invent how nice those look. and it is not just an asian car company either. this is the very high style piano that is now made by the car company pugot. looks very nice. i love the, kind of looks like it's got a clam foot. this apparently is the thing. this has been a thing with asian car companies. they have now been joined by the french car company peugeot.

also makes really nice salt and pepper grinders. now the car company peugeot makes pianos. and they have made history in cuba. wikipedia says they also used to make dresses. and the car company has also just made history in the island nation of cuba because this is the communist government owned dealership. this is selling cars and that's weird because it's cuba, right? today, for the first time since -- cubans are allowed to purchase new cars. the reason the footage from cuba has romantic appeal to people who like old cars no matter what else is going on in the footage is because before now, practically every car on every road in cuba aside from some russian ones, reflected the state policy that only automobiles that were in cuba before the revolution could be bought and sold among the citizens.

given the revolution happened in 1959, that meant 1959 has been the end of the line in terms of cuban automobile availability until now. now, starting today, under these very, very slowly loosening restrictions on cuban live under the dictatorship, cuban citizens can now by new vehicles on the open market. at least theoretically they can do that because the average cuban wage is only around $20 per month and at the dealership, you will find this representative car costing $262,000. what? yes. that's the mark up. people make 20 bucks a month, but the cars cost a quarter of a million dollars. the price is roughly seven times the price you would pay for the same vehicle if you bought it in this country.

but in cuba where the people are least able to afford a vehicle like this, they've still got to pay a 400% mark up or 700% mark up on the cars thanks to the government owned dealership. that's the beauty of the communist economy, right? real communism, in this country, any economic policy advanced by any democratic president is routinely denounced as a form of communism, but cuba is the real deal. when president obama made the decision to bail out the u.s. auto industry in the middle of the financial crisis in 2009, his critics said it foretold not only communism, but the death of the american auto industry because of it. it would never work. once gm became government motors, the american automobile industry was deader than it would have ever been if we just let nature take its course like mitt romney said we should.

but the bailout did happen. now, the bailout is over and the american auto industry is not only not dead, but look at these end of the year numbers. volume of u.s. auto sales best since 2007. quote, chrysler finished 2013 with a 9% sales increase, posting its best increase in six years. the recovery hit full stride. really positive end of the year numbers for the american automobile industry were sort of a crowning glory for what started off as a bad few years and ended up great for the industry. but the end of the year numbers being a real shiny spot, they were end of the year numbers that were really dpood throughout the economy. on new year's eve, the u.s. markets finished off what was a record breaking year. the dow jones industrial average finished the year up 26% for the year. 2013 was the best year for the dow since 1995.

the s&p 500 posted its biggest gain in 16 years. nasdaq, seventh biggest gain in the history of nasdaq. the u.s. economy finished off with a bang, too. grew by 4.1% in the third quarter. that beat expectations and marked the fastest growth rate in two years. that was due in large part to increased consumer spending, which was higher than the expergts expected. also, a huge increase in business investment, which beat out expectations. a lot of really good numbers for 2013. as we head into the new year, there's all these economic indicators that frankly look pretty good. the u.s. economy, which has slowly been trying to dig itself out of the ditch it fell into during the financial crisis appears to be gaining some momentum.

last month, u.s. factory activity hit a two and a half year high. in november, construction spending hit its highest level in nearly five years thanks to what looks like the recovery of the housing markets. that same month in november, the u.s. economy added the total of 203,000 new jobs, which is the number that beat out expectations. for all of the troubles we are still having is finally starting to come along and to build on this success, congress has just come up with a plan to see those 203,000 jobs we just added to the economy in november, to see those 203,000 jobs and to take away 240,000 jobs. 240,000 jobs lost. that's the labor department's estimate of how many jobs are going to be lost because of what congress just did. because of the decision by republicans in congress to end unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for

longer than six months. right after christmas, just days before the new year, congressional republicans decided to cut off employment benefits for people who have been hurt the most. because those unemployment those checks tend to be injected back into the economy, that one decision is threatening to take what was the economy that was starting to come along. in addition to the 240,000 jobs now projected to be lost if this isn't fixed, economists are now predicting the decision to kill those benefits will cut u.s. economic growth by 0.4 percentage points in the first quarter of the year. nearly a half a point on annual economic growth will be cut in the first quarter. to a certain extent, a new report out by house democrats, a

total of congressional democrats are trying to build as much pressure as possible to get republicans to change their mind. to get republicans to come back to congress and agree to extend those benefits and stop kicking the economy in the teeth. house democrats produced this interactive map where you can see how killing those benefits is killing the local economy where you live. the data the democrats put out, it's zip code by zip code. go to their website, click on your state. find your zip code and by doing so, you will find out how many people are about to be cut or have just been cut off entirely because of this decision. i did this today for all of the places that i have lived in the last few years that i could remember the zip code for and it's not, it's sad. it's heartbreaking.

putting out that sort of information. putting it out in that way where you can make it really local in terms of understanding the impact. that is designed to put pressure on individual members of congress because you can see how their districts, how their hometowns are affected. it's supposed to get some individual republicans, maybe least one or two or three or four to come along and so far, at least one republican has shown an interest in trying to fix this problem. it's dean heller of nevada. right now, he's the lone republican cosponsor of legislation that the senate is going to vote on on monday to try to fix this problem for at least another three months, to put off this face punch for another three months. if just a handful of republicans joined with dean heller in the senate, then the unemployment extension would likely pass in the senate. that would have to go to the house and today, the number two house republican, eric cantor, he put out the house republican

agenda for the next month, the list of this things he says might come to the house floor and extending benefits is not even on the might list. democrats don't appear to be giving up. president obama will meet with people who have lost their unemployment benefits and if the senate vote to extend fails on monday, they seem to be prepared to make republicans vote against those benefits over and over and over again, all of this designed to pressure republicans into changing their mind. what are the odds of that happening? joining us now is ryan grim. thanks very much tr being here. >> thanks for having me. >> what is your latest prognosis on the odds? do you think there is any hope of an extension of unemployment benefits taking place? >> in the senate, i think there is some hope. what i'm hearing is that if democrats will allow amendments, you'll get enough republicans

who will at least allow a debate to happen. they might try to tackle all sorts of weird amendments and vote against it when it goes to final passage and stuff because, like you said, you know, you mitt get susan collins. you have dean heller, but that only gives you 57 and gets you short of 60, but maybe the political pressure will be so intense on them that you find a couple more moderates and get it through. that puts more pressure on house republicans, they don't feel a ton of pressure on this like democrats kind of expected they might when they punted on this back in december. >> when the labor department came out with the estimate that this policy decision was going to cost the economy 240,000 jobs and then the economists at jpmorgan came out with their assessment that this would retard economic growth by almost half a percentage point for the half quarter, i thought those were kind of slam dunk political bombshells, really, to mix bad metaphors. once you're talking about jobs

in those numbers, retarding economic growth at that level. that it ends up being the sort of thing that does pressure republicans. is there anything that explains why factors like that wouldn't be effective right now? >> republicans are pushing back with a different type of analysis. what they're saying is that giving unemployment benefits to people discourages them from taking jobs. so, therefore, you're actually hurting them. they're being compassionate about pulling away and in a sense, there's some truth to that. but the political question is you know, what is the value of someone's basic dignity. sure. if your unemployment benefits run out, then you're more likely to take an $8 or $9 an hour job to keep your electricity on, you have to keep food on the table. if you're getting that tiny unemployment check, $200, $300 a week, then you can try to hold out and try to get a job that was a little bit closer to what you were making before you got

let go. this is the dynamic, this is what drives wages down because job seekers then have less power when negotiating their work, but republicans are very public that they're saying you know, people will stop, will take jobs if you take these unemployment benefits away from them. >> some of the polls that has been done on the subject is obviously being designed to put maximum pressure on policy polling. did some polling recently on the subject where they looked at republican districts, including in john boehner's districts, showing that voters in those districts by large majorities support extending these unemployment benefits. do you expect to see more tactics like that, this event at the white house, do you expect the democrats to keep pushing in those directions on this?

>> absolutely. but that's basically all they have left. they had their opportunity in december. they had republicans over the barrel. they were not going to shut down the government over unemployment insurance. democrats reasoned well, we'll get more sequester relief if we don't go for unemployment now. they kind of gambled with these people's unemployment checks. the problem here is we don't really have a national political system. nationally, this is very popular stuff and locally, it's popular, but people are not going to vote out their individual republican members of congress over this particular issue and a lot of people know that. now, there are some moderates who might face the heat and that's your best chance of getting this through, but broadly, it's got to be tough to move it at this point.

>> ryan, thanks very much for being with us tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. if you see, read or hear that conservatives have toned it way down with regard to the culture war these past few years, please observe our next segment, which will be filled with some persuasive dots to the contrary. stay with us. dishcloths can redeposit millions of germs. so ditch your dishcloth and switch to a fresh sheet of bounty duratowel. look! a fresh sheet of bounty duratowel leaves this surface cleaner than a germy dishcloth, as this black light reveals. it's for everyday surfaces where dishcloths deposit germs. and only bounty duratowel is clinically proven to be 3 times cleaner. so ditch your dishcloth and switch to bounty duratowel. the durable, cloth-like picker-upper. this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups.

of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ in 1990, a total of four abortion restrictions were enacted and it pretty much went along at that pace. in total in that decade in the

1990s, about 130 restrictions on abortion rights were passed into law in various states. these are new figures from the guttmacher institute. in the 2000s, the number of new state restrictions on abortion rights got bigger and it was a more volatile process. about 189 measures put into place versus 130 the decade before. but then after 2010, the deluge. in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and the years after republicans took control of lots of state governments across the country, after then, after the 2010 elections, more than 200 measures passed into law in various states. more than 200 in just three years. they did more to roll back abortion rights in the past three years than either of the past two decades.

a dozen states now have 20-week abortion bans. and according to a recent survey, over 50 clinics have been shutdown or forced to stop performing services since 2010 and now, the question is whether the pendulum might be able to start swinging in the other direction. take virginia. under bob mcdonnell, the legislature passed into law this medically unnecessary forced ultrasound exam along with the law that closed down clinic after clinic. ken cuccinelli ran for governor on a straight anti abortion male republican ticket. he and that whole ticket lost. and women's issues were front and center in the campaign. now, in the wake of the

democratic sweep in november, abortion rights advocates say they hope to roll back the restrictions. telling reporters yesterday they're readying a repeal of the forced ultrasound law and expansion of reproductive services in the commonwealth. that's virginia with its shiny new republican branch. in wisconsin, scott walker and the legislature there cut off funding to planned parenthood. shut down a lot of clinics in the state. the state legislature in wisconsin was all set to pass another round of restrictions on abortion and contraception, including the ask your boss law if you could have your health insurance cover your birth control pills, but that sparked one state senator to declare he would bring all out hell to the senate if republicans tried to

push those bills through. against that backdrop of promised all out hell, it now appears that republicans in wisconsin are going to stand down on these new restrictions. a wisconsin state leader says they will not take up those after all. pushback either worked or at least did not hurt wisconsin. and while 2013 saw a ton of legislature wins for antiabortion advocates, when the issue went to a vote by the general republican in albuquerque, new mexico, that superdivisive antiabortion referendum lost and lost badly and that electoral loss for antiabortion advocates came on the heels in california, where abortion procedures can now be performed by more health professionals, not fewer. it is 2014. there are gubernatorial elections on the horizon. several visible pro-choice

candidates are running against republicans from wendy davis in texas -- will 2014 be the year to roll back the abortion rights rollback of the past several years? does this mean things are moving back in the other direction? will there be a significant pushback? watch this space. we're gonna be late. ♪ ♪ ♪ oh are we early? [ male announcer ] commute your way with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. ♪ ♪ no need to chuck, donate or burn them ♪ ♪ just pack them in our flat rate box ♪

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so this happened last night.

howard simon, thank you for being here tonight. congratulations on this ruling. >> thank you very much. >> we received a response from a representative -- >> there is an era, hello? >> it's actually a new high-tech feature. turns out that voice rings out on this show unexpectedly when ever the coke brothers lawyer sends us a letter. there was an error guy was a totally unrelated thing. but we have stirred up some koch brothers lawyerly anger, apparently, which is fascinating. and that rather dramatic story is coming up and you are not going to want to miss it. stay with us. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open.

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america must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. how we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad. how we fight the terrorists -- we can't torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured. i believe we should close

guantanamo and work with our allies. and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control. >> in 2008, the republican nominee for president ran for president by saying that we should close guantanamo and getting applause when he said it. by the time he was running for president, even running for the nomination for president, the sitting republican president, the guy who opened guantanamo, was also saying he wanted to close. >> and obviously, they brought up the concern about guantanamo. and i understand their concerns, but let me explain my position. first, i'd like to end guantanamo. i'd like it to be over with.

one of the things we will do is send people back to their home countries. >> so, when barack obama won the presidency in 2008, his belief that we should close guantanamo was just about the least controversial position that he had taken as a candidate. that position was not only shared by him and the previous president he was succeeding, it was a belief shared by him and by the guy who he ran against, but alas, guantanamo, still open and part of the reason why is this. behold, uighurville, this is technically camp iguana, but apparently, it's known as uighurville because it's part of the prison set aside by a group of uighurs, a group of chinese muslim men, even though the united states government admitted they should not be in prison at all. after the bush administration decided to stop even trying to

contend these chinese guys should be seen as enemy combatants. in 2013, a federal judge said if you have no charges against them, no contention against them, then it is unlawful to keep them at guantanamo any longer. they must be freed. the 17 prisoners were essentially guys who were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the u.s. invaded afghanistan and when there were $5,000 bounties to be paid. but when the bush administration gave up trying to make the case these guys were dangerous, when that judge recorded them released, it was a long way into them having spent years at guantanamo and when the judge said they were going to be released, it seemed like this long, strange odyssey of chinese guys at this prison finally seemed like this was going to come to an end. but then congress freaked out. >> speaker, it is my understanding that president

obama's decision regarding the release into the u.s. the number of uighur detainees held at guantanamo bay since 2002, these terrorists would not be held in prisons, but would be released in your neighborhoods. they should not be released into the united states. when members realize who these people are -- >> they're random chinese guys at guantanamo by mistake. frank wolf decided that the uighurs was the hill he was going to die on. that was the cause he was going to lie down in front of the machinery and stop the world on. who cared that even the bush administration said these guys aren't terrorists and they aren't dangerous. >> you know, holder and this administration is, they were actually going to bring uighurs, people who were picked up who came maybe to learn how to kill the chinese, but were going to kill americans, they were going

to release them on route 7 in falls church. >> in falls church. that year, congressman wolf would not let up. and congressman wolf got his way. the plan to relocate the uighurs in the united states was scrapped and it was hard to find them anywhere else to go and so, they continued to languish in camp iguana. in 2009, four of them finally were sent to bermuda. two went to switzerland. last year two went to el salvador. that left three uighurs still at guantanamo bay with no charges against them, no contention that they're dangerous. earlier this week, the final three were finally freed after 12 years of imprisonment, they were sent to the nation of slovakia. at the beginning of the year,

there were 166 prisoners at guantanamo bay. over the course of the year, 11 were released. nine in the last month alone. that means we're down to 155 prisoners at guantanamo. over half of the remaining prisoners, and now, the weirdest group of prisoners at guantanamo, the last of the uighurs are finally now gone. should we see that as a sign that soon, more people will be able to go? that the burst of activity, finding them places to go around the world will continue? is progress now afoot? joining us now is senior counsel for the law and security program. thank you very much for being with us tonight. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> do you think that the release of these chinese men says anything about the rest of the people at guantanamo, are they really a singular case? >> i think it does say something about primarily, the main

obstacle to closing guantanamo in the first place, what the administration has done now with the president giving a speech in may of this year at the national defense university is reiterate the commitment to close guantanamo. so, i think this is just kind of the icing on the cake at the end of the year here. moving forward to actually closing guantanamo. >> do you think it is going to be piece mill, individual arrangements like this or is there something that could happen over the course of the next year or two where a large number of prisoners could be freed at once? >> i think it's a little bit of both. one of the big problems is that the majority of detainees,

especially the cleared detainees, are yemenees and there be some opportunity to have a solution where many will be transferred. for the most part these negotiations with countries including third countries beyond the home countries of the detainees will have to proceed on a case by case basis, taking into account diplomatic, legal consequences. so it will be an arduous process. with the right amount of political commitment and right high level engagement from the president, i believe it can be done. >> in terms of that political commitment and political engagement, obviously, your senior council at human rights first and you're approaching these rights as advocate and attorney here, but when you look at the political climate, it's always seemed strange to me that there was this level of agreement that guantanamo should be closed, that that was inevitable and then as soon as steps started to be taken

towards that, there was this really bipartisan freak out about it. do you think we are passed that? as more progress is made in 2014 and more people are sent away from that prison, do you think that we're past the point where we could have another congressional freak out like we saw from frank wolf? >> there's also a chance someone will try to play politics, but i think we're getting to the point where most people most informed individuals in congress and beyond see the closure of guantanamo as inevitable. it's not a matter of when and how and so, even seeing senator john mccain, who was in your introduction, reiterate his commitment. he played an important role on the senate floor with the defense bill, which actually relaxed transfer restrictions. to allow the president more power to transfer detainees. so, you know, i think we're making progress here. what happens in 2014 remains to be seen, but i'm hopeful. >> thanks very much for your

time tonight. nice to have you here. >> thanks for having me. still to come. debunction junction. our latest encounter with the koch brothers and a completely legitimate news reason to show and revel in this. stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is george. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪

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>> debunction junction. true or false? that russian ship stuck in antarctica, good news, they've been freed and all passengers have been rescued. false. technically, the 52 passengers stranded were rescued as we reported here last night and everybody else reported everywhere else, too. a helicopter based on a chinese ice breaker picked them up and

flew them to a third ship and that australian ice breaker set sail for tasmania. starting voyagers on their journey home. the problem is that chinese ship, the one that sent the helicopter to rescue everybody, the chinese ship might now be stuck in the ice as well, so the rescued page passeningers are technically rescued, but the ship they're on is not moving either. they're in a holding pattern to see if the ship needs to be saved. there you have it. also, true or false. there is a newborn island off the coast of japan shaped like snoopy. yes. is that true or false? please, please, please let it be true. true.

i did not believe it when i first heard it, but it's true. back in november, a volcanic eruption was spotted about 600 miles south of tokyo around the ring of fire out in the middle of the pacific ocean. as you can see, the volcano created a new island. the new island started creeping closer and closer and closer and closer to its nearby land mass until it finally connected to an already existing island. and you know, normally, just another uninhabitable island in the middle of the ocean. interesting, maybe, but wait a minute. take a look at this island. does it remind you anybody from your childhood? maybe his best friend should be a bald headed kid in a yellow and black zigzag tee? and a bird named woodstock. snoopy. a collar and everything. a snoopy shaped island right in the middle of the pacific ocean.

i thought it was a hoax on twitter and it is true. it is true and that is almost as awesome as getting a personal letter from the koch brothers. not quite, but close and that story is next. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪

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♪ ♪ did i get anything wrong? did i get anything wrong? did i fairly summarize what's in that package? did i get anything wrong there? did i confuse any of the details? >> the reason i ask that question of guests is because inevitably when you are spending 6,000 words a night explaining the news, inevitably some of your words will be wrong. so like last night, an amazing moment at the end of our lead story where i say about night to our guest. i think it's over. then he says really loud and obviously not to me, he says, there is an error. this is a very strange moment.

watch. >> congratulations on this ruling. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> i should tell you that we received a response -- >> there is an error. hello. >> hello. i couldn't see him. i didn't know what was going -- and he was right. there was an error. that was a really strange way for me to find out about it. the story was about a federal court order against florida's drug test the poor law. and i had characterized it as an action by a federal appeals court when it was an action by a federal district court. so really there was an error. he was right. and i'm very sorry there was an error. you never like to get stuff wrong. but it does happen from time to time. i try to make sure we correct it. that said, don't push it. we cover a lot of right wing politics on this show. nothing against democrats. nothing against liberals. but the selection of stories reflects my belief as the host that the most interesting story

in american politics this decade is the effort by the republican party to remake itself in the wake of the disastrous bush/cheney error. and the divides within the party, particularly within the party itself and the conservative movement that thinks it controls the party, i think those are the most interesting and consequential fights in america today. and i think the resolution, who is going to win and who is going to lose is truly an open question and fascinating and important one for who we are as a country. we cover the conservative moment on the show. occasionally we find people who have been mentioned in our coverage who are absolutely outraged that they have been mentioned in our coverage. people who are not used to being talked about by someone who does not take their instructions. so what happens is they try to instruct me as to how i ought to talk about them. and the conservative political figures who you can most threaten to sue you, call your

boss and scream as loud as they can in a way they cannot control are of course the koch brothers. charles and david koch. they inherited a praoeufltly held oil company by their dad. if charles and david were one koch brother instead of two, they would be the second richest guy on earth. and they have been political figures as long as they have been richer than god. when david koch ran for vice president in 1980, he minted gold dimes with his own head on them as a campaign trinket. the koch brothers have so much money, one of them made his own money with his own head on it as a means to persuade you to vote him into the white house. wow. that's the level of money and that's the level of politics in which these guys have always operated. when you operate at that level maybe you are not used to ever hearing things that you do not

want to hear, particularly things about yourself. and so very frequently when we cover the koch brothers, we then hear from the koch brothers lawyer. it was about the drug test the poor law smacked down by a federal judge on new year's eve. it was blocked twice. it was hugely expensive when it was in effect. when it was in effect, it turned up hreflts of the drug use that were one quarter the level in the population at large. so the florida drug test the poor law has been an expensive and embarrassing failure from the beginning. it has failed legally. it failed as a bolster for the stereotypes on which it was based. the political right has successfully marketed that failed florida policy to lots of other states. we highlighted local reporting from state's like missouri, kansas, minnesota who have all adopted versions of the failed

florida law and are all now reaping the negative consequences or worried that they are going to. this is an interesting political question. they get picked up and moved into different states everyone as they fail everywhere they are tried. it is a political question as to who does that. who tells states that they ought to do what florida did with a policy like this? well, in the case of this florida flaw we looked at, it's the florida foundation for government accountability. they went to preliminary hearings in georgia to share the good news about the policy and why georgia should adopt it. and the national group alec to market florida's terrible policy to state legislators from all over the company. they should look to florida for free market medicaid and welfare reforms. who is this group saying they

ought to adopt florida's terrible law? a huge network of state-based conservative think tanks that is designed to not look like a network. they all look vaguely indigenous, looking to be locally specific names. but their funding comes in part from a central source of big money corporate donors including groups affiliated with the koch brothers. we are not the first to report on this. and the koch brothers lawyers are not denying that they fund these networks or the florida foundation is one of the groups funded through one of these networks. but they really do not want anyone reporting any connection between what those groups do and

who gives them the money that they do it with. the koch brothers letter to us includes a script they want me to read on the air denouncing my own reporting on the florida drug test the poor story and telling you they are not involved in promoting any such issue. i'm not going to read their script. i'm not going to announce my own reporting on this story. the reporting on this story stands. it is true. now we know the coke brothers do not wish to be associated with the work and the causes they have funded through their multiyear funding of network conservative organizations. you not wanting to be known for something you have done is not the same as you not having done it. the koch brothers do also say when we contacted them for comment on our story it was too late in the day and we should have given them more time to respond. we will endeavor in the future

to contact them earlier in the day. i'm sorry our call came late. but we will not stop reporting on the consequences of the political actions of rich and powerful men, even if they send angry letters every time they do it. i will not read scripts provided to me by anybody else. i do not play requests. i will happily make corrections when we get things wrong. we do it all the time. but i will not renounce just because the subjects don't like it. it means being subject to political scrutiny. if you don't want to be known for it, don't do it. just don't complain when people accurately describe your actions. your actions are what we are reporting on and we will do that on our own terms as a free press. if you want to control the words used, then speak for yourself. mr. koch, the other mr. koch,

you are welcome on the show any time. i would love to discuss them live, in person, without interruption. it will be easy to set up. you apparently already have my number. that does it for tonight. we appreciate it. happy new year. >> "weekends with alex witt" starts now. deep freeze. historic cold freeze across the u.s. it is bringing mind boggling low temperatures. exactly how low and where? details next. clemency for edward snowden? what will it take for that to happen or if it should happen. the biggest security operation in sports history, but will it be enough? new questions today about the olympic games in russia. sticker shock. that's what you might find at the grocery store in the new year. how high might some prices go?